A teenager who burgled a vulnerable woman living at a supported hostel for the homeless has been locked up for nine months.

Alexander Walmsley, who was also a resident at the Keyhouse Project accommodation in Richmond Street, Keighley, burgled the home of an 18-year-old friend only weeks before he was caught on CCTV in his dressing gown, sneaking out of the hostel room with a laptop computer.

He pleaded guilty to burglary on November 17 last year, and admitted a breach of a conditional discharge for the earlier offence.

Bradford Crown Court heard last Wednesday that Walmsley, 19, sold the laptop, containing precious family photos, for £30.

Walmsley’s barrister, Abigail Langford, said he was himself vulnerable, immature and naive, with a lack of thinking skills.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC sent Walmsey to a young offender institution for seven months for the hostel burglary and an extra two months for burgling his friend’s home.

He labelled the teenager, a heavy cannabis user, “a deceitful young man”.